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Over 90% of flowering plants rely on insect pollinators for sexual reproduction. Pollination biologists often quantify pollinator effectiveness by counting the number of pollen grains a pollinator deposits on a plant’s stigma in a single visit. However, flowers in the Asteraceae, like Echinacea, are uniovulate, meaning that a there is just one ovule per style. Therefore, it theoretically only takes one viable pollen grain to fully set seed in an Echinacea ovary, which means the standard method of quantifying pollinator effectiveness may not be appropriate for Echinacea and other members of the Asteraceae. In this study, we wanted to estimate how many pollen grains are really necessary to set a seed in Echinacea angustifolia. We performed 60 hand crosses with varying levels of pollen deposited. Each cross consisted of nine total styles of which three were removed before the cross to get estimates of self-pollen deposition, and six styles were crossed with pollen from other flowering individuals. We then collected styles and stained them using fuchsin gel and to count the number of pollen grains using a compound microscope. We x-rayed the achenes, fruits, from the crosses to determine if a seed was present. Preliminary data shows that seed set varies with the pollen grains deposited. These data will advance our understanding of pollinator effectiveness in this uniovulate plant. By increasing our understanding of pollinator efficiency in the Asteraceae we can better predict the consequences of pollinator declines in fragmented habitats, such as the North American tallgrass prairie.
 Mia doing one of her many, many crosses Start year: 2018
Location: exPt2
Overlaps with: The Big Event, Bees Remove and Deposit Pollen
Physical specimens: 183 Echinacea heads were dissected at the College of Wooster in fall 2018. They are currently being processed at CBG.
Data collected: Contact Dr. Jennifer Ison or Mia Stevens for data related to this experiment
Team members who have worked on this project include: Mia Stevens (2018) is the lead on this project.
Hello from Team Echinacea East!
A long long time ago on the flog many clicks away, Lara Leventhal performed an experiment to determine the amount of interspecific pollen diversity on different taxa of solitary ground nesting bees. The field aspect of this experiment occurred during the summer of 2016 this involved catching bees and wiping them on styles of Echinacea. By genotyping seedlings that were produced by wiping bees on receptive styles, we are able to determine how many different plants that the bee taxa are carrying pollen from. This requires performing plant paternity tests really means a lot of PCR work. This work has been going on for over a year, we are starting to reach the end and almost to a point of doing only reruns on samples that failed. I have not been doing this work alone, there have been many people that have worked on this project right now Michelle Chang and I have been on the molecular team, (there has been at least two people besides Laura that worked on this project).
 Meet Michele! She is working on loading a PCR plate in this photo
Look its a new PCR!  We called it boxville for a reason! Doing lab work requires well a set up lab. The College of Wooster just opened our new life sciences building that means that when I got back to school the lab was full of boxes. We had to unpack before we could do anything. This was very exciting but also was a daunting task, we have recently have finished setting up the lab and the greenhouse(oh have I not mentioned it yet there is a greenhouse attached to the lab!)
One side of the lab(post boxes) The other half of the lab Until next time flog!
Mia
Today was a momentous day, it was the last day for the remaining members of Team CoW Bee. It started out with the rain we celebrated by getting juice from the local juicer in Alex. Then Michael, Andy, and I when out to P2 to do phenology and harvesting. It was nice to be able to see P2 one last time even though it was quite cloudy. While this was occurring teams were sent out to collect soil samples, collect tents, and demo. After all of the teams returned for lunch we played an amazing game of werewolf. Morgan who has never played the game before not surprisingly won as the werewolf. Towards the end of the game, the thunder began to rumble so we quickly moved the goats, this was a short yet efficient task. Just as it began to rain we closed the fence, then we ate cake and ice cream. We then had an interesting discussion about finding jobs and the application process. The rain did not let up so we called it a day. After work we did a lot of packing and cleaning at The Roost, we went out for the last supper to celebrate this monumentous day.
Some fine juice on a wet morning. Evan found a toad AND picked it up!(monumentous I tell you) A monumental view from P2 Some momentous clouds That monumental feeling when the goats accept your buckthorn(or when Stuart tells you that there are cake and ice cream!): I would like to thank all members of team Echinacea for this amazing summer I have had, it would not have been as awe-some without all of you. This has been a great experience and I have learned so much! I still have a fair amount of work to do for my project so this is not goodbye flog, just see you later!
Mia
Today was a big day for Team Echinacea, many things were accomplished all around. It started with funology at P2 with some harvesting. An ever-increasing number of heads are done flowering and ready to harvest. Which makes the already enjoyable task of phenology, suitable of the name funology! After returning to Hjelm the team dispersed into a brief session of task forces before returning to team work of goat moving! There are 4 goats that live in pastures around Hjelm, they are used to control the invasive buckthorn. The four goats are named Style, Scape, No S, and The Kid. Goat moving was an exciting change of pace for the team, none of our study organisms require herding or coaxing. The first step when moving the goats was to disassemble the electric fence and reassemble it around the new pasture. While the assembling was being assembled Andy and I were tasked with watching the goats in their old pasture and moving them towards the new pasture. This worked out surprisingly well, by the time the goats arrived at the new pasture the fence was near completion and no goats went on adventures too far from the path.
Andy carefully watching over the goats while they munch on some near by trees. Whoops lost half a goat during the transfer! Happy goats surrounded by their one love. Buckthorn. After the goat moving extravaganza we broke for lunch, today’s strange lunch conversation included how much Kristen would need to pay Evan for him to eat a large inch worm that was found on Andy’s shirt. Once this debate had been exhausted the team got back to checking things off the to-do list. Kristen, Evan, John, and Andy moved emergence traps and put out pan traps. A good chunk of P1 measuring was also completed, we finished the remaining sections of the inbreeding garden, then we started and completed the 99 garden. The plants in the 99 garden are significantly closer together which makes this a difficult task but when the team sets its mind on something it seems like we can complete almost anything! There is quite a large population of Big Blue Stem that calls P1 home, while it makes for quite a nice prairie community it is not so nice for us researches that attempt to navigate the plot. At this point in the season, the grass is over all of our heads which makes measuring plants that are ~30cm off the ground somewhat challenging.
Do you see Michael? It’s hard to spot him through all the Big Blue Stem! After work today Riley made a tuna pasta salad which was delicious. Then the “Roosters” were joined by Kristen for a showing of an episode of the bachelorette. Yet another fun filled productive day seems to have passed for team Echinacea!
Until next time flog,
Mia
P.S. Last time I posted I talked about my personal project as an update on Friday I did my 60th and last hand cross! So now on to pollen counting!
Post the Big Events you may think that the team’s trips to experimental plot two would be few and far between, well you would be mistaken. Zeke, Evan, Jennifer, and I (hereafter “Team CoWBee”) have been busy working there doing pollinator observations and a lot of painting. Today we went straight to Hegg Lake allowing us to get there while the bees were still sleeping. Zeke and Evan were busy watching the bees. Andy and Morgan joined us to work on phenology. While that was happening I was preoccupied with my independent project. What is my independent project you ask? Well, let me tell you!
Lunch with a view In pollination biology, it is often thought that the more pollen grains a bee deposits the more efficient it is (the better it is for the plant). However, Echinacea technically only needs one pollen grain to make a seed. Once you consider that not all pollen grains are viable more than more may be necessary to ensure a seed is made. My question is how many pollen grains are necessary for there to be a 90% chance that the seed is made. How in the world am I doing this you may ask? Well, I must be the bee. Not literally but I need to deposit different amounts of pollen on styles and see if a seed is made. To deposit the pollen, I have been using toothpicks, a flosser picks, and a patience. Once I deposit the pollen I will come back remove the style allowing me to count the amount of pollen under a microscope. Today I spent the majority of the time being a bee, performing these hand crosses so that I can remove the styles tomorrow. My goal is to perform a total of 480 crosses (80 heads) (half of these are backups) today I did 54 crosses (nine heads).
Toothpicks aren’t only for hors d’oeuvres Who uses flossers for their teeth? A style under a microscope Still, have a lot of work to do so until next time!
Mia
The team hard at work shooing pollinators Yup you read right, today we shooed the bees from the Echinacea. Now you may be asking why would a group of scientists trying to save native bee populations tried to stop bees from pollinating flowers. Well, it’s a reasonable question. Since plants can’t move, it is difficult for them to find a mate, therefore, they have evolved to use bees to do the moving part for them. The different types of bees can have differing effects on the plant’s fitness (not how big its muscles are but how many offspring it has) and those effects are exactly what we are trying to determine with this experiment. Many plants have both male and female parts. Female being how many seeds are being made and male being how many seeds a plant helps make. This raises the question of: how good are different types of bees at distributing pollen from a plant? In order to do this, we need to have plants that are only pollinated by one type of bee. Once we have plants only pollinated by one type of bee we can track where this pollen goes using genetic work. This is where the shooing comes in, to have plants only pollinated by one type of bee we needed to shoo away the other types.
So today the entire team (except Kristen – she was busy working with bees 🙁 ) went out to P2 and worked on the male fitness project. This shooing event has been dubbed the “Big Event.” Today was the first Big Event of five(?) to come, and it was quite successful. We observed around 200 pollinators, the majority of the bees that we saw fit into the category of “small black bee” not to be confused with “medium black bees”, we also saw a fair number of Andrena which are impressive due to the great amount of pollen that each bee carries.
John holding a male Megachile We saw some Augochlorellas, and Agapostomons – both of which are neat because they are green! My favorite of the day was a male Megachile which I have never seen before. They are very distinct with hairs on their front legs. This mere two and half hours of observations show you the high level of diversity of different bee species at one of our study sites! Can’t wait for the next Big Event titled Big Event 2: Electric Boogaloo and all of the bees that will be found then!
Gretel and Stuart examining a bee A female Megachile on a echinacea(notice how she caries pollen on her abdomen) See ya’ next time flog!
Mia
Hello Flog!
I am excited to be the first flogger of the season (other than team flogs)! Since we had such a busy first week in the field all of us at the Roost were looking forward to some well deserved rest. Speaking of the Roost this is where part of the team lives in Alex, the house got its name from all of its rooster themed decorations. Last night Kristen and Will came over to the Roost and we found a cat outside the house. The cat was so nice, she was very friendly!
The Roost Kristen and our new friend I made scrambled eggs for breakfast and for some of the house. They were quite tasty if I do say so myself.
The Chef with the meal Happy Place Brigid, Evan and I went to Target to get some supplies for the Roost. As a College of Wooster student Target is a big deal, there is no Target in Wooster, Ohio. It lived up to and exceeded our expectations, everyone was so nice! After Target we headed to Goodwill. We were in search of a bowl for salad. We have been using a pitcher or a large pot to make salad for the last five days. The pitcher has been working well but we finally caved and bought a real sized bowl. At Goodwill we found some of the strangest clothes and wore them. Brigid found a fabulous snakeskin coat, shoes, the outfit was completed with a zebra striped scarf and a news boy cap. She will be deputing this outfit at Alex Fashion Week 2018 along with Riley in his “Adventure Wear” in his half unzipped zip off field pants.
Everyone is a critic Zeke is making stir fry for dinner tonight and we are all looking forward to eating it and using our new salad bowl!
See you soon flog!
Native long grass prairie is the most endangered ecosystem in North America. Humans are the obvious cause of the dramatic reduction of this system. The human impacts on prairie can be seen in nearly every remnant prairie that the team visits and the Nessman plot is no exception. The Nessman plot is a roadside prairie remnant, with corn on one side, soybeans on the other, and a small patch of remnant prairie in the middle, bisected by a gravel road. A little ways down the road there is a dairy farm once owned by the Nessman family. The prairie that remains consists mostly of invasive alfalfa and European cool-season grasses. These four things: agriculture, pastureland, invasives, and transportation, are the culmination of the main effects that humans can have on the tallgrass prairie.
On Monday June 18th, we went to this prairie remnant and got a glimpse of the impact that humans have had. Upon arrival, we quickly saw the prolific flowing of non-native alfalfa, and the buzz of pollinators all around. The agriculture crept in from both sides, squeezing the heavily invaded remnant prairie closer to the road. Even still, two massive Echinacea plants bud in this highly disturbed prairie site. It made us realize that, even in the most affected sites, native plants still survive and even thrive.
This raises an important concern for every person who interacts with the prairie: how can we have as little impact as possible? Every step we take in the prairie can have deleterious effects on important and rare plants. Here are a few ways that we reduce our impact when we enter the prairie remnants.
Steps and tips for low impact walking in prairie research:
-First you need to determine where you are trying to go
-Then you plan out a path that involves taking the least number of steps and disturbing the fewest plants.
-You need to take large steps and lift your feet up
-Once you get to where you are trying to go you should keep your feet planted, don’t shuffle or shimmy
– After observing or gathering the intended information, make your way back attempting to follow your original path. Remember to take large steps and lift your feet up.
– Finally, once you’ve successfully made it back, receive some well deserved congratulations from your fellow team members! Because as we here say at the Echinacea Project- “It’s not just about the Echinacea!”
Echinacea Project 2018
Biology, College of Wooster 2020
Research Interests
I spent the last year working in the Ison lab at Wooster exploring pollinator efficiency of the American Bellflower and finishing lab work on interspecific pollen diversity of Echinacea which is carried by different solitary bees. This work and a population & community ecology class I took showed me how delicate mutualisms are. Also how the species involved control said mutualism. Another area of interest of mine is how plants respond to their environment.
Statement
I am a junior biology major and environmental studies minor at the College of Wooster. I grew up in Buffalo, NY, (and no it doesn’t always snow there). I spend the majority of my free time knitting and enjoying the great outdoors. I do this outdoor exploring with my trusty sidekick, my dog Ellie.
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